Finding the Lost
by MelRows
Summary: The Core This is a sequal to my favorite movie: The Core. DISCONTINUED.
1. Nighttime Phone Calls

Disclaimer: If I owned this, I wouldn't be posting it hear. It belongs to Paramount.

Finding the Lost

Chapter One: Nighttime Phone Calls

Colonel Childs woke up with a start in a deep sweat. It took a moment for her to realize that she wasn't in the center of the Earth, but in house in southern California. She put her head in her hands and thought, "Why won't these nightmares stop? Wait- they aren't nightmares, Beck, they're your memories" said an accusing voice in her head. "And to think," Continued the voice, "You could have prevented all of this from happening. It's your fault all four of them died."

"If you had started that laser check a couple of seconds earlier, Bob would still be here," she thought as she recounted the deaths of four of her friends. "If you had listened to Josh and hit the overrides, Serge would still be alive." She knew she was exaggerating, but she felt that it was completely her fault. "You could have gotten Braz out of the impeller outlet before you started the impeller," she thought. "You should have seen and dodged that energy flare. If you had done that, Zimsky would still be making arrogant remarks."

"Stop it!" the rational part of her brain said. "There's no point in killing yourself over the past: it won't change anything." She reasoned. "I need to talk to someone," she decided, "I don't want to wake up Josh up at…" she glanced at her clock. "…One hundred hours, but he's probably used to his cell phone ringing at ungodly hours of the morning by now. After all, he said that he was having nightmares as well."

Beck picked op her phone and dialed her boyfriend's number. Little did she know that 2,000 miles away, in Chicago, Josh was already awake, pondering whether or not to call her.

"Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!" Josh told himself over and over again. "Your claustrophobia is the reason Iverson is dead. If you hadn't hesitated to unhook you oxygen tube, or if you had quit making small talk, he would have had enough time to get back in the ship before that dang piece of crystal hit him in the back of the head," Josh thought as he continued to mentally beat himself up. "You could have gotten Serge out of that compartment before the door closed. It's not Beck's fault he's dead; it's yours!"

Serge had been his best friend. They had known each other since way back. Having lost track of each other, they were thrilled when they found out that they would be on a top-secret government mission to save the planet from self demolition. It had nearly killed him when he couldn't help his friend and had to watch him be killed by the intense heat and pressure of the Earth's mantle.

"You were able to get yourself out of countless life/death situations, but you couldn't think of a brilliant plan in your God-given brain to save Braz," Josh continued. "If you had gotten the bomb cart off of Zimsky, he would still be alive."

"Josh! Listen to yourself. Beating yourself up over the past won't change it." He realized as the rational part of his brain kicked in. "Stop being so selfish. Imagine what Beck must be going through. After all, she was right along side you all the way." The very thought of Beck made his stomach do a flip-flop.

He was pondering whether or not to call her this early in the morning when he was jolted from his musings by his cell phone ringing the theme song of the _James Bond _movies. He quickly grabbed it from his bedside table and hit the "Talk" button.

"Josh here," he said, already having a good idea of who was calling.

"Hi. Guess who," said Beck.

"Hi Beck. Nightmares again?" Josh answered in a gentle tone.

"Yep. I'm really sorry if I woke you up. These phone calls in the middle of the night must be really annoying for you," said Beck, not sure if he'd be angry or not.

"Not at all. I'm just glad that I have someone that understands to talk to about everything. I was already up with nightmares before you called anyway. I'm glad you called because I was trying to decide whether or not to call you," Josh assured her.

She laughed. Josh had fallen in love with her laugh the first time he had heard it, which was over five months ago. The fact that he would have been able to hear it more if they got out of the center of the Earth alive had given him the power to think of a plan to save them.

"That makes me feel better," Beck stated with relief, "Tonight Orpheus decided to plague me with my exact memories. Sometimes I think that normal nightmares would be more bearable then recounting what happened. You know what I mean?"

"One hundred percent. Same thing here. I haven't been able to get a decent night's sleep ever since I stepped off of that ship" Josh said.

"I know what you mean. It seems that every time I close my eyes, memories start surfacing. How long has it been since then: three months, four?"

"Three and a half," Josh stated.

"You keep track?" Beck asked, amused.

"Well it's kind of hard not to when you glance at the calendar everyday while making lesson plans," said Josh in his defense.

"Well, I guess that makes sense. So, what did you tell your students about your mysterious absence?" Beck said. The people at NASA had been told that she and Iverson had been put on probation for crashing the shuttle. The government was going to tell the people about Josh and she after all of the commotion died down. They didn't think that the public was ready to know about the survivors and they didn't want Josh and Beck to have to go through all of the questions and constant press so soon after the loss of four of their good friends.

"I told them that my mother had died and that I had to find a place for my brother to stay until his eighteenth birthday. I know it's pretty bad but it was the best that I could come up with on such short notice. Of course, none of them believe me. They all think that I had something to do with Virgil. It's freaky how good these students are," Josh explained.

"At least you got to choose your story," Beck started, "The government told everyone at NASA that Bob and I had been put on probation for crashing the shuttle. All of the people I'm working with won't stop making comments that I'm too young to be able to correctly figure out a way to land a shuttle. They keep saying that I should have left it to Houston to find a way to land the ship. The only problem with that would have been that the computers wouldn't have found a way to land safely in time," Beck practically shouted. All of this time Josh was listening patiently. "Sorry, it just really ticks me off that the only way that they can protect our secret is by making me look like a compete idiot," said Beck apologetically.

"There isn't anything to be sorry for. If I was in your situation I would be just as ticked off as you right now," said the young professor, calming his girlfriend.

"Thank you. So, have the students seemed interested in Rat's um... broadcast?" Beck questioned Josh as she smiled sadly knowing that four of the world's brightest and bravest men received recognition for saving the Earth from, well, itself.

"Yeah," said Josh, breaking Beck from her thoughts, "Most of them have accepted it without a hitch but just as many want more answers then what the broadcast gave out. I have to answer them from an outsider's point of view. You probably know how hard it is to fake ignorance and not tell them the truth."

"I totally know what you mean. My coworkers are constantly badgering me because I was on Iverson's last space mission. They also suspect that I was on the government mission. So they're either questioning or commenting me. It takes all of my military training not to tell them the truth just so they get off my back," she told him as she remembered her annoying coworkers.

"That must be horrible," Josh said. There was a moment of silence where both survivors were lost in their own thoughts. Josh broke the silence as he asked, "Hey, by the way, do you have spring break off?"

"Yeah. They decided to do a computer system check for the base. All of the astronauts that don't help with the computers get a week off. Why do you want to know anyway?" Beck questioned even though she had her hopes about what he was going to ask her.

"Well," Josh said slowly, not sure of how Beck would take the idea, "I was thinking about flying down there to visit you for spring break," Josh said, "Of course, if you already have plans that's fine," he added quickly, not wanting to make her feel pressured into anything.

"I don't have plans!" Beck said, unable to control her excitement. "This is great! I can't wait for you to come! When are you coming? What airport are you flying into?" Beck said without taking a breath.

"Hold on, Beck. Slow down!" Josh said. He was greatly relieved to hear that Beck had taken to the idea of seeing him over spring break.

"Sorry," Beck said, obviously embarrassed.

"It's okay. Let's see, I'm flying in on Saturday to the Los Angeles Airport. Could you possibly pick me up?" He asked.

"Sure. What time is your flight supposed to land?" Beck asked, still excited at the thought of seeing Josh in just over a day.

"Well, my flight is supposed to land at 18 hundred hours, but with all of the holiday delays at O'Hare, it could be later. Is that all right?" Josh questioned. He was still excited at the prospect of seeing his girlfriend for the first time in about two months.

"Yeah, sure! So, I guess I'll see you then."

"Guess so. See you then. And, Beck, I'm really glad that I'll get to see you." Josh told his best friend who just happened to be his girlfriend.

"I am too," Beck said, very truthfully. "See you tomorrow then."

"Yeah, see you tomorrow."

Click.

Even though both of the friends were very excited just to think about seeing each other, they were both extremely tired. Before long they both fell into a deep, long, peaceful sleep. It was their first in over three and a half months.

Author's Notes:

This is my first fic so please tell me how I did.

If I get feed back, I'll continue the story.

Criticism is appreciated!


	2. The Day Before

Disclaimer: I don't own The Core. It belongs to Paramount.

Chapter Two: The Day Before

Josh woke up with his alarm that morning. He couldn't even remember the last time that had happened.

"That's a first. I haven't been able to wake up with my alarm since before I left."

He usually had to hit the snooze at least three times because his sleep had been plagued with nightmares and he couldn't get a good night's sleep. He often thought about how people take a good night's sleep for granted. He would never take that for granted again.

"Okay," Josh thought while still in bed, "It's Friday. Let's list all of the good things about today. One: I'm going to see Beck tomorrow. Two: The weekend is coming up. Three: It's the last day of teaching before Spring Break. Four: I'm going to see Beck tomorrow. Wait- I already listed that. Oh, well." stated Josh, trying to push those thoughts out of his head so that he could get on with the day.

"Okay, time to get up and go to the University," he said out loud as he got out of bed and tried to find a pair of comfortable clothes.

"Another day trying to hide my- no, wait, the government's biggest secret," he thought to himself as he pulled on jeans, a random shirt, and his favorite brown jacket. He glanced at his clock as he walked out of his room and into the kitchen: 6:30.

"Wow! I'm early." he said to himself. He was usually always just on time if not late. Lately it had been because of lack of sleep. He went to go pour himself a cup of coffee when he realized that he didn't need it. "I feel totally awake. Weird," he thought, "I might as well go to the University and set up early."

After grabbing his lesson plans, he left his suite. He decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator that morning. Just as he was about to start the long journey down the stairs, he saw one of the children ready to race down them.

"Hey! Wait up!" he said. He felt like racing today.

"Hi, Josh! I haven't seen you around lately," the eight year old boy said. Josh had always been a favorite among the younger children in the tall apartment complex. He was one of the only adults in the building who didn't think that children were just a problem. Most of the people in the building were snobs. This was one of the more expensive apartments in the city.

"Same here, Nathan," Josh replied. "You ready for a race?" he asked the boy.

"Yeah!" he said excited that he would have someone to race down the stairs.

"On your mark, get set, go!" Josh said.

He ran down the eighteen flights of stairs and only lost by a couple of steps.

"I have been beaten. I now proclaim that you are the new stair champion of the building," Josh declared as he acted like a medieval king. He waved good-bye to Nathan.

He climbed into his Land Rover and went out of the parking garage. His way to work was filled with trying to fight the famous Chicago traffic. He got to the University of Chicago and pulled in to the teachers' parking lot. As he got out of his car he saw a car that looked vaguely familiar.

"I've seen that car before. I know it's not a teacher's car, but I can't put my finger on it," he thought to himself. But by the time he walked into the building, thoughts of mysterious cars were pushed aside.

He walked into his classroom and started setting up supplies. He had almost finished preparing for his first class when he realized that he had left his model of the planet Earth inside his car. He glanced at the clock: 8:40. He still had plenty of time. His first class started at 9:00. He went back to his car and pulled a model of the structure of the Earth out of his trunk. He turned and went back inside. He didn't think to look at the unidentified car. If he had he would have seen two familiar faces staring back at him.

Josh re walked the familiar hallways that led to his classroom. He was about to turn the last corner before he reached his destination when he heard one of his students talking. Usually he would have just kept walking, but then he heard something that made him stop right in his tracks.

"...you won't believe what I just over heard,"

"What?"

"Okay, so there were two people in army clothes. One was that Percell guy that has been all over the news. The other one was some woman. I think she was the Flight Director for that Space Shuttle mission last year," she began.

"What are Tom and Stick doing here?" Josh wondered.

"...they were talking about that thing on the news, you know, Destiny. They seemed to know a lot more that most people would," said Kristin.

"Oh crap," Josh almost said out loud.

"But what really confused me," started Kristin, "was when Professor Keyes' name came up..."

"Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap," Josh thought as if that was the only word he knew. He knew that if word of Beck and him got out, he would be toast.

"They said something about making sure nobody knew about the "survivors". After that they left. It was really weird. I think I know what it means, but I'm not sure yet. We'll just have to wait and see," she stated as she and her friend walked into the classroom, not wanting to be late for class.

"That must have been Tom and Stick making sure that nobody knew about Beck and me," Josh concluded. "Wait- that car! The car I saw this morning was Tom's car. I remember seeing it at the training base in Utah!" Josh suddenly remembered. "So much for keeping Beck's and my identity secret. By tomorrow the entire school will know. I have to stop that. Tom will kill me if that news got out."

He walked into his classroom and found all of the students whispering. Once they all saw him, the whispering stopped immediately. "Okay, now what?" he asked himself, "Well, I might as well tell them and ask them to keep quiet about it until the government decides to tell the public," he silently decided.

"I already know what you're talking about so there's no reason to try to be quiet about it," Josh began, trying to lighten up the mood. "I think I need to clear some things up. But before I tell you anything, I need you to swear that the information I tell you does not, under any circumstances, leave this room until the government decides to release it to the public," he said, his voice suddenly becoming very serious. "If you can't do that, you'll not only be in trouble with me, but with the United States government," Josh said telling them the importance of what he was going to tell them. "So, if you know that you won't be able to keep this secret, I'm asking you to leave, for your own sake,"

Nobody moved a muscle.

"Okay then," he said while taking a deep breath, "Can somebody tell me what you have heard in the last two minutes?"

Kristin slowly raised her hand. When Josh called on her, she said, "I heard that there were six people on Virgil, not just the four they mentioned in the news," she paused and then took a quivering breath. Then, in a voice that you had to strain your ears to hear, she meekly said, "I heard that you were one of the survivors."

An eerie silence settled over the room. Everyone in the room was afraid to say anything. All of the students' eyes were totally concentrated on the man standing at the front of the room. You could have heard hear a pin drop.

"I won't deny that I am one of the survivors," There were gasps, but no one said a word. No ones' eyes left him. No one breathed. Josh knew that they wanted to know about the mission.

"I was chosen for the mission because of my knowledge of geophysics and that fact that I was the one who figured out that the world was going to self-destruct in the first place. I assume that you know about the other four of the other five on the mission?" he asked.

The students nodded.

"Since you all promised not to tell a single living soul about this, I'll tell you the name of the last person on the crew. Do you all swear not to breathe a word of this to anyone? I can't stress this point enough," he said while almost glaring at the class.

"Okay. You know the successful space shuttle landing in Los Angeles last year? As you all know, the commander of that mission was also the commander of Virgil. You all also know that Commander Iverson died at the beginning of the mission," Josh said as he tried to swallow the lump that was forming in his throat.

As he looked up, he noticed that all of the students were looking down, trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. That was what Josh hoped that they would do. That way he didn't have to tell them that Beck was the final person on the crew. One of the student's faces looked up; their face showed that they had figured out whom the mystery person was. One by one the students' faces dawned with realization. The person who had figured it out first raised their hand. Josh nodded at him.

"Was the final person on the crew Major Childs? If Commander Iverson was killed in the beginning, someone would have had to have piloted the ship. Major Childs was the pilot on Endeavor and she was the one who proposed the decent vectors for the shuttle. The media was told that she had been put on probation for crashing the shuttle, but that's what they said for Commander Iverson as well," he said.

"Man you guys are good," Josh told the students while looking down. He still wasn't comfortable releasing the information. The students stared at each other. There was an awkward silence where Josh was caught in his thoughts and the class awaiting an explanation.

Finally, a hand rose in to the air. Its owner said, "If you don't mind me asking, sir, how did you survive?" Josh sighed. They were going to find out sooner or later, right?

"The ship was made by Dr. Edward Brazzleton out of a material called unobtainium," he started as he tried not to think of Braz's painful death. The class nodded in agreement. "Unobtainium converts heat to energy. That is the reason the ship was able to make it to the center of the planet. Because the core's density was lighter than we thought, the original plan that Dr. Zimsky and other scientists made up wasn't going to work. We created a new plan that would have the bombs being set off at different times and different points throughout the core. It would have the same effect as stones being dropped in a pond. We didn't think that the last bomb would have needed to be larger. Before the compartment that Zimsky was in detached," Josh said as he fought to keep the emotions that he had kept buried under control, "he told me to use the reactor power to build the last bomb. I did and the last bomb was released on time and was heavy enough to complete the nuclear chain," Josh said.

The students' eyes were fixed on him. They had no idea about this part of the mission. None of this had been in the news. No student in that room had thought that the mission itself had so much science behind it. They still couldn't grasp the fact that the man they saw almost every day, the man who was always so easy to talk to, the professor that everyone liked, had been through so much without telling someone.

"Commander Childs and I," he stopped due to the questioning glances he was getting from the students. All of them thought that Rebecca Childs was a Colonel.

"Colonel Childs took on all of Commander Iverson's duties after he was-" Josh paused and tried to swallow yet another lump that was swelling up in his throat, "After he died, Colonel Childs took over all of the duties of the Commander in addition to her own. I don't know about you but I think that qualifies for the title 'Commander'," he explained. He saw the students all nod.

"Anyway, Commander Childs and I were left without any power and the temperature slowly rising. We knew that when the blast of the bombs hit us, we'd be toast," he said has he remembered the way he felt cheated because he'd never know if the plan that they had thought up had worked. He had felt that if he knew that Earth had been saved, he would have been able to die happy.

"Thanks to Braz's model of the breakdown of unobtainium, I was able to formulate a plan to save Be- Commander Childs and me. I thought of powering the ship by the heat and pressure of the core. As I said before, unobtainium converts heat to energy. We were able to hook up all of the power tubes by the time the blast caught up with up with us. We made it to the bottom of the ocean by surfing the magma flows. Since we were 800 feet below the ocean surface, we had yet again, been left without power. We then pulsed the ultrasonic that brought the whales. The whales brought the attention of the navy ship that was looking for us," explained Josh as if it was something he did every day.

The class was once again opened mouthed, staring at their professor with the utmost respect and awe. They still couldn't believe that their professor was an unsung, worldwide hero.

"The navy ship found us and attached cables to the ship and pulled us up. The commander and I thought up a way to tell the world about the other four people and passed it on to the person who was making sure word about the mission didn't get out in the first place," Josh explained.

Kristin's hand rose into the air again. When her professor called on her she asked, "Professor Keyes, do you know when the government will decide to release the information to the public?"

"Well, I'll know before hand because they have to get Major Childs and me to give them permission before they can have the broadcast. It should probably be on the air soon because it has been about three and a half months since the mission," Josh said.

Kristen breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't think that she would be able to keep the information secret for a long time. It was mind rattling just to think about what her professor had gone through.

Josh looked at the clock and realized that there was still about 30 minutes of time left in class. He knew that it would be impossible to get the class to concentrate after what he had told them. He decided that he would let them all out earlier than usual for Spring Break.

"Okay," Josh said, "I'm going to let you guys out earlier today. But before any of you leave, I need you all to swear that you'll never breathe a word of any of this any one before it appears on television. I believe that all of you know the importance of this and why it needs to be kept secret," Josh said. He knew that the class was listening because he related to them as adults, not just as students.

He could see that everyone in the class was nodding and understood what he was saying. He just hoped that they would do what they had promised him and keep quiet about everything.

"On a higher note," he began, "have a great Spring Break. Class dismissed," Josh told them.

The college students filed out of the room slowly, still mussing about what had just been reveled to them. Some of them went down to the cafeteria for an early lunch. They needed to talk to each other about what they had heard.

"I really hope that they don't tell anyone or I'm going to be in hot water," Josh thought, "Well, at least until the government decides to release it to the public," he thought as he hoped that his students could keep the information to themselves for that long. "Hey, maybe Beck will finally get her face on a postage stamp," he laughed out loud as he remembered what Beck had said to them in the middle of the earth.

He spent most of the next part of his day making lesson plans. When he looked up he noticed that it was already quarter until noon. He still had over an hour until his next class. He decided to go to the cafeteria for lunch. Just as he had collected his newly written lesson plans, his cell phone rang. After putting the plans right back down where he had picked them up from, he grabbed his phone from his jacket pocket and hit the 'Talk' button.

"Keyes here," he said into the new model of phone. This type of phone was one that could fold down to the size of an Ipod Shuffle.

"Hello Josh," said a voice that Josh would never forget. It was the most respected general on United States soil: General Thomas Purcell. It was the same general who had been there just hours before. It was the same general that had been in charge of the mission to save the Earth. Most people would have something to brag about if the four-star general even looked twice at them. Josh wasn't most people.

"Hello Tom," Josh said as if it was an everyday occurrence.

"Josh, the government has decided that the public is ready to know about you and Rebecca," said the general getting directly to the point. "Rebecca has already given us permission; all we need is your go-ahead to air it on the news," he said. He obviously was uncomfortable about asking Josh for this. Beck had told him how Josh wasn't in favor of being famous.

Josh just stood there, the realization hitting him faster then the new models of the Air Force Jets going at top speed. He was going to be a worldwide hero. He didn't want to be famous. He liked his life the way it was, thank you very much. So, naturally, his first instinct was to toss the idea out the window, but then his thoughts turned to Beck.

"She has wanted this since she was thirteen. I can't let her dreams be shattered because of my selfishness," he thought. He took a deep breath. "You have my go-ahead, General," he said slowly. He knew that this decision would change his life forever.

"Thank you, Josh," the general said, "I know that this wouldn't have been your first choice," he said in a voice much softer then his usual, all-business, manner. The general had sort of adopted Josh as a second son during the three months of training in the Salt Lake Flats.

"You're welcome, Tom. See you soon," Josh said.

"See you later then," Thomas Purcell said as he hung up.

The silence in the empty classroom was deafening. Thousands of thoughts rushed through Josh's head. His life was going to turn upside down and he couldn't do anything about it now. He stood there for a couple of minutes trying to sort out his thoughts.

After awhile he picked up his lesson plans and walked to the door. He laughed at the situation; at least his class wouldn't have to keep secrets. He walked to the college's cafeteria slowly, still thinking about what was going to happen. When he got to his destination, he got in to the line and picked up what he wanted. He paid for his lunch and found a table in a secluded corner of the lunch area. Glancing around the room, he noticed about half of his class huddled around one table, talking in hushed voices. He smiled to himself and turned his attention to one of the TVs hanging around the room.

He found it strange that the number of crimes had gone down considerably. They had gone down, yes, but not stopped. They would never stop completely. It seemed that the realization that they probably would have been dead right now if it hadn't have been for loss of four heroes got the criminals to realize that life was too short to waste. Josh had a feeling that a lot more people would be doing the unthinkable in the future. The thought that he and the rest of the people involved with Virgil might motivate the person who finds a cure for cancer was overwhelming.

His attention was brought back to the television when the sports came on. He had been following baseball and football ever since the Chicago teams had started winning. Earlier that year, the Bears had won the Super Bowl by one touch down with seven seconds left to play. On top of that, the Cubs had one the World Series, the first time in ages.

The main news reporter came back on. "In other news, a group of dolphins saved a crew of 25 men on a fishing boat just of the coast of Southern Africa. They pulled the men to safety after their boat sunk- what's this Tim?" she said while pausing to talk into her head set. "We have breaking news strait from Washington D.C.," she gasped as she saw the news appearing on the computer screen in front of her, "It seems that the government has just released a top secret report. The four people who died on the mission to restart the Earth's core weren't the only ones; there were two survivors," she said, not believing what she was being told.

In the cafeteria, Josh's students turned and looked at him. By this time, almost everyone's attention was glued to the various televisions hanging around the room, much like almost everyone else in the United States. Josh just turned his to one of the televisions and waited for his life to change forever.

Sorry I had to repost. I found some major errors.

For any of you guys who was wondering where some of the information in the story comes from, it comes from the book that was based on the movie.

Thanks to all of my reviewers. You guys rock.

AlexXx Marie: Thanks for reviewing. I'm glad you likeThe Core too.

Elizabeth Aiken: Sorry I haven't updated! Thanks foryour review.

jenforvel: Beck is 30 and Josh is 31. Thanks for reviewing!


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